A man raising his 18-month-old daughter alone tried to sell the little girl for $7,000 so he could make improvements to his house, police said Friday.The man from Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, tried to sell his daughter to a Grand Chute couple, who helped authorities in the investigation, Grand Chute police Chief Ed Kopp said."He was having difficulties raising the child alone and wanted to use the money for some home remodeling," Kopp said.Danny Vu, 37, was charged Friday with unauthorized adoption placement, a felony that carries up to six years in prison.The daughter showed no signs of physical abuse, Kopp said. Brown County officials will probably place her in temporary foster care.... http://www.cnn.com

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Saturday the United States couldn't tackle global imbalances by itself and indicated it didn't want to be pulled into big finger-pointing discussions on the issue. Speaking to the International Monetary Fund, Snow repeated the U.S. position that ratcheting down big imbalances in trade and capital flows "cannot be anything other than a shared responsibility" because no one country caused them. "The United States, by itself, cannot and should not be expected to resolve the problem, but we, like other major participants in the global economy have an important role to play," Snow said. "However, the United States does not have a specific current account target in mind." ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1877447

U.S. Judge T.S. Ellis III decided yesterday to let lawyers for former lobbyists accused of spying subpoena Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and three diplomats as they try to show that talking about confidential information is commonplace. The lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee when they claim to have received leaks from Rice, U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq David Satterfield and former Special Envoy to Israel Anthony Zinni. Rosen and Weissman are charged with communication of national defense information for sharing those leaks with the press and the Israeli government. Lawrence Franklin, a former Defense Department intelligence analyst, was sentenced Jan. 20 to 12 1/2 years in prison for leaking the information. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=abR4mF1hBB3Y&refer=home

A startling Internet video that shows someone spraying graffiti on President Bush's jet looked so authentic that the Air Force wasn't immediately certain whether the plane had been targeted.It was all a hoax. No one actually sprayed the slogan "Still Free" on the cowling of Air Force One.The pranksters responsible for the grainy, two-minute Web video — employed by a New York fashion company — revealed Friday how they pulled it off: a rented 747 in California painted to look almost exactly like Air Force One."I wanted to do something culturally significant, wanted to create a real pop-culture moment," said Marc Ecko of Marc Ecko Enterprises. "It's this completely irreverent, over-the-top thing that could really never happen: this five-dollar can of paint putting a pimple on this Goliath."...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-22-air-force-one-hoax_x.htm

The Senate again will take up immigration-reform legislation in the coming weeks with an eye toward at least beefing up border security before the fall elections. Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, set a new deadline of Memorial Day to pass a comprehensive immigration bill, Senate Republican leadership aides said yesterday. Before then, Mr. Frist and other Republicans want to approve immediate spending to improve border security. That money would pay for additional Border Patrol agents, unmanned surveillance vehicles and targeted fencing. Mr. Frist previously set a deadline of two weeks ago for passing an immigration-reform bill, but it stalled under intense disagreement over several provisions in a Senate proposal that both sides initially hailed as a "breakthrough" compromise. Conservatives said the bill granted amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens already in this country because it would provide most with a direct path to citizenship. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060421-111636-6497r.htm

Russia, which has demonstrated its willingness to use energy as a political weapon, is tightening its grip on supplies to Western Europe, with projections showing it will provide 70 percent of the region's natural gas by 2025. Until recently, members of the European Union were split into two "zones" of dependence on Russian gas and oil. Russia has a virtual monopoly on supplying gas and oil to new EU members, mostly former Soviet satellites. Old Europe, on the other hand, is less dependent, but that dependence is growing. "Old Europe's independence is rapidly deteriorating. The two de facto zones are being equalized in the worst possible way," said Vladimir Socor, a Munich-based energy analyst with the Jamestown Foundation. Mr. Socor, in a telephone interview yesterday, said Europe's growing demand, the depletion of North Sea gas and oil fields and Russian moves to buy up infrastructure in Europe are leaving the Continent ever more dependent on Russian supplies. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060421-111635-5890r.htm